


The Tumblr Crackficlets 11 - Smile

by darth_stitch



Series: Sherlock BBC - The Tumblr Crackficlets [11]
Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: Fluff, Humor, John Watson is adorable, Lestrade gives good advice, M/M, Romance, Schmoop, Sherlock fell liek a ton of bricks, So fluffy you need your toothbrush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-21
Updated: 2012-08-21
Packaged: 2017-11-12 15:11:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/492582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darth_stitch/pseuds/darth_stitch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sherlock is not immune to John Watson's smile.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Tumblr Crackficlets 11 - Smile

**Author's Note:**

>  Uh. Yeah.  Fluff to the nth power.  Look, I dare you guys to look at that Watson smile and not do like Sherlock and fall like a ton of bricks. 

Originally posted at [The Blanket Fort - Darth Stitch on Tumblr](http://darthstitch.tumblr.com/post/29660059024/smile-theres-a-reason-why-john-h-watson-got)

 

[ ](http://darthstitch.tumblr.com/image/29660059024)

**Smile**

There’s a reason why John H. Watson got playfully tagged with the “Three Continents” monicker by his mates.

It’s not as if he’s handsome in a conventional sense.  Certainly, he’s good-looking enough but hardly movie-star material.  It’s not even the Army uniform - John H. Watson has been able to charm the opposite sex even as a sweet, tow-headed little tyke.  It guaranteed him pats on the head, pinches on the cheek, hugs and sweeties being offered by a doting mother, grandmothers, assorted aunts, cousins and even the neighbors. 

Once he hit puberty and discovered that girls were a lot more interesting than he’d previously thought, all bets were off. Not that he was a heartless cad, mind.  Most of his relationships (read:  _before_ he suddenly had a certain High Maintenance Consulting Detective in his life) ended on a good note and he was often on the Christmas card lists of his old girlfriends and many a woman has still thought fondly of “sweet, adorable Johnny” in the Way Back When.

If you ask Bill Murray, one of John’s old friends from his Army days, what the secret was, he’ll give it to you straight.

“It’s that goddamn smile of his.  I’m tellin’ ya, it’s a bleedin’ panty-dropper.”

Sherlock Holmes isn’t immune to that smile.

Sherlock remembers that first time he saw John Watson _smile_. 

It was anatomically impossible for his heart to skip a beat, but Sherlock could say that it was an approximate turn of phrase to describe what he felt at the time.  John’s smile transformed his fairly pleasant features into something else, something _more_.  Granted, it was just an amused reaction to the ridiculous situation they’d both found themselves in, it was still quite extraordinary. 

If Sherlock had been alone, he might have been furious with himself for the mistake he had just made - that poor American tourist they’d thought was their serial killer suspect was understandably confused.  He must have thought all Londoners were quite mad. 

But John was there and he _smiled_ and then, a little later, he _laughed_ and it was the most delicious sound that Sherlock had ever heard in his life.  And somehow, he found himself laughing along with him.

They’d run all the way back to Baker Street, giggling like a pair of right fools and Sherlock found that he absolutely could not get enough of that sound coming from John.

“That was _ridiculous_ ,” John had gasped.  “That was…the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever done.” 

Sherlock couldn’t help it.  “And you invaded Afghanistan.”

More hysterical, adorable, _delicious_ giggles.  “That wasn’t just _me_.”

Sherlock couldn’t help it - he laughed right along with him.

Of course, plenty of other things happened right after that - the so-called drugs bust, discovering the true identity of that wretched serial killer, Sherlock playing his game (and he was still sure he’d gotten the right pill!) and then, the serial killer killed by what was, frankly, an _amazing_ shot fired from right across another building.  Sherlock had to admit that it saved his life and his mind was quite engaged, yet again, in the puzzle of figuring out who the mysterious crack shot was.

And then he saw John, standing quietly behind the police lines, looking as innocent as you please and Sherlock just _knew_.  That innocent look wasn’t proof against Sherlock, of course and contrary to popular opinion, he wasn’t incapable of showing _concern_ for another human being.

But there was John, turning on the full power of that absurd smile, now laced with more than just a bit of mischief and in seconds they were both giggling again, more than a little bit giddy with relief.

Giggling over a crime scene, indeed. John was trying to get them both to stop but Sherlock was still dazzled by that smile and continually thinking of that phrase, _“fell like a ton of bricks.”_

It was not to be the first, nor was it to be the last time. 

Sherlock would soon find numerous ways to tease that smile out of John.  He mentally cataloged each and every thing he did to get the desired result.   _Things That Make John Watson Smile_  was beginning to be an ever-expanding file folder in his mental hard drive.  He included a special annotation if this was something that actually made John break out into those wonderfully delightful giggles.  

Saying something witty was a given - Sherlock wasn’t given to jokes, but he _did_ have a sense of humor.  He and John often found humor in the oddest of things and situations. 

Sometimes it was something Sherlock _did_ \- like the way he’d play the violin for John at 3 am, when the latter would wake from some nightmare or the other and make his way downstairs to sit in his favorite chair with a cup of tea, quite unable to make it back to sleep just yet.

Sometimes it was something Sherlock did but he wasn’t sure of the specifics, only that it made that smile appear fleetingly on John’s face, an expression that spoke quite clearly of gentle affection as well as amusement.  Sherlock would figure out much later that it was probably his ignorance of some inane pop culture drivel that he’d long deleted. 

For the record, Sherlock was _not_ completely ignorant of pop culture.  The first time he’d surprised John with his knowledge of Elvis Presley, the man’s delighted grin was a memory Sherlock would firmly put in his _Do Not Delete_ folder.

There was quite a long time, that Sherlock would not dwell on, where the smiles and the laughter had left John, leaving a deep grief and anger in its wake.  When Sherlock had returned from his long absence (he would not mention the name that had brought him to that terrible choice - he’d spent far too long cursing it and the memory of the man who bore it), he already knew that the anger was something he would face and accepted John’s rage as his due. 

John’s forgiveness was something Sherlock would eventually earn but the grief and the pain, oh, that was so much harder.   John’s smiles then were false things, never reaching his eyes, pale, poor imitations of what Sherlock had seen before.  His laughter sounded broken, a touch away from a sob and it was as painful to hear as a screeched, sour note on Sherlock’s violin. 

And then, one day, taking Lestrade’s pithy, plain advice which consisted of: “Stop being an absolute tit, man up and _tell_ him”- Sherlock finally told John how very much he loved him.

That smile - brilliant, amazing, extraordinary - was the most beautiful thing Sherlock had ever seen.

He’d spend the rest of his life making sure that John would never lose that smile again.

***

**Author's Note:**

>  **Note the Second:**  Elvis.  OMG.  Yes, I can tell you Sherlock knows Elvis.  Watch HOUND again with our favorite Detective in his Mind Palace and see him do a goddamn decent Elvis impression. 
> 
> **Picture Source:**
> 
> [Cumberbatchweb](http://www.benedictcumberbatch.co.uk/)
> 
>  


End file.
